The Get Down: Nas joins Baz Luhrmann and Jaden Smith on new Netflix show

Nas will contribute rhymes to the show, which depicts the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s

Nas has joined director Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming Netflix show The Get Down, about the birth of hip-hop in New York.

During a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Luhrmann, who is perhaps most famous for his production of Moulin Rouge described the rapper as “one of the most iconic voices of the 1990s”.

He said: “One of the great collaborations is that I’ve been working really closely in creating these rhymes, and he’s a producer on the film, with one of the most iconic voices of the 1990s and that’s Nas. And so Nas has been this other huge creative force in the production. And it’s been playing really, really successfully.

“One of the things which I don’t think anyone knows, because it’s not in the trailers — and we’ve been doing this for about a year now — is that one of the characters goes on and we discover that he’s actually a successful rap star in the 1990s, and he narrates it through rhyme, through rap.”

The Get Down is due to feature Jaden Smith, and will depict the very beginnings of hip-hop at the height of the disco craze in the 1970s. The trailer is below:

Grandmaster Flash, who is being played in the show by Mamoudou Athie, is also on board as a producer on the show. The cast that already includes former Sons Of Anarchy/L.A. Law star Jimmy Smits and up-and-coming young actors Herizen Guardiola, Justice Smith, Shameik Moore, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen.